The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Lesson 13 moving onto Lesson 14
Mike Doyle · Sep 5, 2021
Holy Spirit (2021-23), No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261924105857

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're about to finish up lesson 13. Person and work of the Holy Spirit and is talking about his indwelling. And we had gotten about halfway through question five last week. And question five was, how important is the word of God to the spirit of a believer?

We kind of went over it rapidly, but I think it's good for us to understand that it's the spirit of a man that's the highest part of his being. I know that now, I'm gonna talk about later about resurrection. One of the men I'm gonna quote said that, well, we live in a body today, that is really designed for your soul. But when you die and then you're resurrected, your resurrected body will be specifically designed for your spirit.

Well, why is it that way? Because the spirit is the dominating factor of a human being. We all think it's a soul because that's what we're so used to. Because before we're a believer, our spirit is dead to God. doesn't have a function, and so our soul takes over and runs us. Now that we're believers, our spirit is alive, and it's alive to God, and the Holy Spirit has indwelt it, indwelt our spirit, and it is to be the entity in a human being that controls all the rest of the man, which is hard for us to get a grasp on early on because we're so used to our soul running everything, how I think and feel and make decisions rather than listening to the Spirit of God. In God's order, when the Spirit engages in His setting apart work, His sanctifying work, it is through the actions of the truth. God's truth is Word.

You'll notice that again and again, and Riteout says he's going to return to this fact several times as we go forward. Spiritual intelligence is the very cornerstone of piety. I love that word, piety. Coming out of Catholicism, everybody was pious. My perspective of that word is that it's phony. But in piety, it isn't really. It's a conformity to Christ and his life being lived out through you. That's really what piety means.

The lines of teaching of the Spirit's work cross and recross, and we will find that the points of intersection are at the truth. So what's the Spirit's job? His job is to reveal God's word to us, to reveal the truth to us. And the truth actually turns out to be a person, the Lord Jesus. And so he works vis-a-vis the scriptures. That's what he does. And the scriptures are revealed to our spirit first.

Your spirit gets it first. I don't know if Miles Stanford used to say that the spirit of God, all of those papers he would write, the spirit of God would give him an entire 30 page paper in his spirit in about 15 minutes. but it would take nine months to get it out of his spirit through his soul on a piece of paper so somebody else could understand it. But he had it in his spirit and he knew. It's like we all know certain things about the Lord that we are totally persuaded about, but it's difficult for us to explain them to somebody else out from our soul. It's really hard.

And so spiritual growth has a lot to do with our soul catching up with what's true of our spirit. And that is why the Holy Spirit works only through the word of God, okay? The truth of God is embodied in his word. And in that we have the full revelation, which he has been pleased to make of himself and his counsels centered in Christ. So that's what we talked about last week. So to finish up this question, the importance of the word of God to the spirit of the believer Right, I'll continue to say this is not the time to enter upon the subject, but I am increasingly convinced of its overwhelming importance. The word of God, the scriptures of the Old and New Testament is the vehicle that the Holy Spirit, the instrument which he uses.

I absolutely agree with that. It's God's word alone. And it's hard sometimes to, just take God at his word because he says things that either are new to us or don't make a human logical sense. But I think all of us have to get to a point where we adopt this attitude of thus saith the Lord.

If he said it, it's good enough. You know, he is not under any obligation to explain it to me, although he will, but he's not under an obligation to do it. He reveals it to me, but he may not explain it because he may be explaining it in the going, in the way you live your life through circumstances, through all kinds of things. But primarily it's from his word. It's from his word. And that's where the information comes from in which our faith rests on. allows us to live above circumstances.

Jim? Isn't that why the Word of God means nothing to a believer? That's exactly why. Because the Spirit is not speaking to that unbeliever's mind. That's exactly right. That's why it meant nothing to me until I believed in Jesus Christ. I knew it was valuable, but I couldn't get anything from it. I would take one exception to that.

Word of God, let me see if I can quickly get it up here. The Word of God, it's powerful. And it does some things, like it divides the soul from the spirit and that kind of thing. But what I'm after is right at the beginning of the Book of Romans, see if I can get it quickly here. Right, it says that the word of God has the power of salvation, that it alone.

So when you think about it, if I'm gonna sit down and talk to a non-believer about salvation, well, should I have a really good story and I can deliver it really well? No, it's the word of God that has the power. So there's no substitute for it, even with a non-believer. But of course, you don't want to sit down with a non-believer and talk about identification, position, condition, and all of that. Because, I mean, talk about Greek. But salvation is another thing. Because that's right where the man lives.

Mike, also, when you say that, you know, we just have to, yeah. Yeah, I think the thing is, too, when you, Do we have to believe the word? I think, you know, that comes also from our relationship and knowing Christ. How do I trust that word? I have to trust the person saying it. And I think it's based on a relationship. The more we have that relationship, the more I trust the word that he tells me. And it's the Holy Spirit's job to convince me of that and to bring me to that knowledge and to show me Christ through his word. But as you know Christ, I think it is, when the word tells you something, you know the veracity behind it or the object behind it is Christ.

I think that's where you get that, okay, I can trust it. It's until you have that relationship, I think you're more apt to be apprehensive about it. Yeah. I think sometimes you're told something by somebody and you think, well, that sounds right. and I'll accept. And then later on, you're reading God's word and it just lays out that same premise and you say, oh. is right.

A lot of times it was the power of a testimony. And I'm just curious whether it be a really clever story that relates a drowning man and a gracious hand that reaches out and saves him. There's stories and there's our own personal testimonies, and I know how I think about that. You mentioned it's the power of the word of God. So where do those fit in, and how does that relate to the communication of the gospel message? OK. I think that a person's testimony is really critical sometimes. But I think the power in that testimony is from how it relates to what God's word says about salvation.

In other words, to say it another way, If I have a really terrific story to tell about what I think is salvation and it doesn't line up with the Word of God, it's just a story. The Word of God has to be the underpinning and the truth that's associated with my experience. In other words, I need to take my, we all have experiences and sometimes you put more emphasis or value in your experience than you do the word of God. And I think with every experience, you have to go into God's word and say, hey, is this legitimate or not? Yeah, I was just gonna I was thinking it's it's a very powerful tool in terms of relating to other people And to give them context but the context itself should ultimately point to the very truth of the Word of God not just the experience of the believer or the Accuracy of the story.

Yeah, just some thoughts I had around that. I Think that's right, Jim In Romans 1 16 he says it's he's talking about the gospel Because it's the power for salvation for anyone who believes that's right That's that's the Holy Spirit through speaking through the word sure it's that's that that's the power. Yeah, you know so yeah Experience can be put aside, you know, it can be argued against, but you cannot argue against the Word of God. Sure.

Yeah, I find that in salvation experience, probably it's maybe my testimony maybe be relevant, but I find that when you talk to somebody about spiritual growth, It better be based on the word of God because your experience does, I mean, someone wants to talk about you were co-crucified with Christ.

How much of an experience is that? Do you remember that when that happened? Did it hurt? But the word of God says that's what happened. I was crucified with him, buried and resurrected. Gee, I don't remember that. I don't have the experience. Is it true?

Yeah, because God's word says it's so. See, now in salvation, it's pretty simple in the sense that you're lost and here's a savior. And if you believe in his work and his person, he will save you. And let me give you an example of that. I'll give you my testimony. To what? To fortify God's word? No, it's the other way around.

God's word fortifies what happened to you. So, it leads to, the spirit, the write-out says, the spiritual condition of a person may largely be gauged by his estimation of the word of God. How do I estimate God's word? Is it the information that's the most important thing that I ever find out about or learn? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. And we go, so much experience, feelings, and emotions, and we don't realize that God's word is the basis under which everything is based.

I'm thinking about the story we heard at dinner a month ago about the guy that was in some cathedral in Poland, and there was a body of a saint there that had been there 400 years, and it hadn't decomposed. And he said that was the most spiritual experience he'd ever had. And I listened to the guy, and I thought, wow, that's it. Some guy in Poland, in the last case, his body isn't decomposed.

You put your finger in there and make sure it was the body. I couldn't say anything to him because what is the deal? His experience overrode what God's word would have to say. You must be right, right? 400 years, I hope you guys are around 400 years. Rideout says, if the word of God is neglected and thought lightly of, no matter how high the pretensions, how ecstatic the feelings, how deep apparently the piety, there is not much true work of the spirit of God. He ever honors God's word. So I don't know how you make it any plainer than that. What's it? He ever honors the word of God. And the spirit of God is the one who's doing all the work. We don't know anything without him, okay? Okay, question six.

How do we believers enjoy, how do we believers enjoy our position in Christ? How do we enjoy the position that we have? Everybody understand what I mean by the word position? There's biblical truths, like I have a position. I'm seated in Christ in the heavenlies right now. Positionally, I have been crucified, buried, and resurrected. I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. And it goes on and on. Like Courtney and I have talked about Louis Ferry Chafer's 33 things that happened to us on the cross. Are they all true? Yeah, there's positional truth. There's things that are true of me. Again, the question, how do we believers enjoy our position in Christ? How do we do that? Because it's designed for us to enjoy. It's not designed for us to be intellectual theologians. We're to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ. Question, Mike. What do you mean? What might we think of enjoy being? How would we define enjoying? That's a good point.

Have you got an answer? I think that there are results from that perspective of our position that lead to certain certain things, and I'll let the class answer what those things might be, that all add up to what we might call enjoy. And we're not talking about a experiential enjoyment in the sense of, oh, that was a fun ride, I really enjoyed that ride at the carnival or whatever. There are other things that add up to what that word would entail, at least in my, and I'd like to hear the class try to Yeah, I think it's summarized in the fruit of the Spirit. joy, peace, all that, that's the enjoyment. That's it. All of the fruit of the spirit all together. That's a good point, Coordinator, because Rael said that he calls it the practical enjoyment of our position in Christ.

So if you have a mind like my mind works, I read positional truth, and the next thing that hits my mind is, so what? You know, I mean, love, joy, peace, okay. So what if I don't get to abide in those things? Even if I'm under a lot of pressure or suffering, I should be able to abide in those things.

And I think the answer to how you do it is, my thought is rest. You rest in them. I agree. That's where you enjoy them. You rest in all those truths, all those 33 things or 200 things or whatever. It's just rest. You trust them. And that's where the peace, joy, all the things, the fruit and spirit are a result of that. Right. That's good. That's really good because you know, I think the one consequence for sin in the world is an outside of Christ.

Nobody has rest. Nobody you can have all the money in the world be able to do whatever you want. You don't have rest and you can't buy it and the lord Jesus said, you come unto me and I will give you So find out that even though your circumstances may not ever change or may seldom change, I can still rest. Why? Jim, hit your button. That's the one on the bottom. On the bottom. A little green light will come on.

I always feel like it's cheating because the right answer to a lot of your questions is Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when I think about how we enjoy it is like. There's no trying, there's no formula other than union and focus on our Lord. And then all of a sudden, it's kind of mystical. It's like it takes you in a place and then it's like, wow, I have, the experience follows that. It's like, I have that peace, I have that joy. You get back in the world and it's gone. You focus back on Christ and whether we're in fellowship and it's there, it's incredibly beautiful.

Maybe to paint a picture. You have God's word, and you're entwined by the Holy Spirit. What's his job? To implement, to show you what that word is, but also to implement it in your life. He's the one that does it. So as he works, and you're responding by believing him. That's what you do.

Is there anything other than belief that we're encouraged to do? No. were to trust him, believe him. So Rideout says, may we not say that for faith, the believer's portion is the word of God, question mark. And is it not the constant word of the spirit, there remains very much land to be possessed.

Ah, what a fullness there is in that word. Let us not be slothful in making it our own under the guiding energy of the Holy Spirit. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Interesting. I think a believer is one of the only ones that comes to a point in his life to understand, I'm not free. The word says I'm free, but I'm really not free, because this emotion controls me, and this circumstance controls me. And I want to live above all of that, not that I become irresponsible. As a matter of fact, I become responsible when I abide in Christ, because the things are important, and they get handled. But everything is done in a dependence on Him, rather than in a dependence on my wisdom, and my energy, and my skill. the fed I think so.

There's two things that stuck out in what you guys just mentioned. I think Courtney hit the nail on the head with the fruit of the spirit. I think that's where I was coming from. And then, Jimmy, you hit it in the sense that that is a person. that enjoyment has to do with the fellowship of Christ through those things that you're being conformed to. And that leads to joy. And that was just kind of, I just didn't want to take that English term of just enjoying something and make sure it translated to a more biblical perspective there. That's good. Yeah, what we're talking about is life. life in Christ and implemented and enjoyed by the work of the Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we're just theologians at best with a lot of knowledge, but no life. I'm done. Yes, sir, Jim.

I think part of enjoying it, enjoying our position in Christ is being comfortable in that position. Oh, that's a good point. You know, it's a comfortable rest in Christ. And I answered this question by, you know, how do we believers enjoy or comfortably rest in our position in Christ is by familiarity with God's word, by looking to Christ. by trusting and resting in the Father's love for us.

It is the Spirit who leads us in these things. You know, it's kind of obvious, isn't it? It's amazing how much we call it faith, trust. It's like in a marriage, if you trust your spouse and they trust you, there's a rest about that. There's a life involved in that. If there's angst, it's because there isn't trust. So we are in lesson 14.

If you can find pages 35 through 37, that's where it's at. I cheat on some of these because I can search my PDF for certain references or something like that so I can find it within my PDF. But anyway, so the first question is, how does the author describe the layout of the book of Romans? And so I kind of went back and just, how many were in the Romans class?

Most of you. So I guess I'll kind of, he has a, I'm probably blasting out now from what Mike is. Mike Whispers and I have the stage voice. Yeah, I've never been accused of being quiet, I think. So I want to go back kind of a little bit, just a quick summary.

I know Rideout has it, but I just want to go over, what do the first three chapters of Romans cover up to 321? You know what that covers? Sin. Sin. It basically, you know, it's all about what we bring to the table. And it's nothing good. It basically lays out, you know, nobody has a get out of jail free card. Nobody has a, this doesn't apply to me. We're all at birth linked to Adam and the sinful flesh. And the first three chapters through 21 basically lay that out, that there's not an exclusion, a clause that somebody said, that doesn't apply to me. And I think it's culminated in Romans 3, 9 through 18.

And I love this passage because I love anybody who thinks in the world that they're just a really good person. They're really good. They've walked a little old lady across the street. They have donated to the church for 50 years. They are just good people. Well, this kind of tells you where you're at. This is a kind of summary.

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. That's pretty much right off the bat. As it is written, I love these summaries. There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There's not even one. So all those people who think they're just great people, I don't mean, there's not even one.

Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

So is there an exclusion for anybody who was born that doesn't fit this or is not included in this? There are sure a whole lot of alls. Alls. It wasn't like except or but Phil. You know, there isn't there. There isn't an exclusion. We're all under this. We're all under sin. So. So we've kind of established what we bring to the table in our relationship with God to begin with. We are all sinners. We're all fit this description, even though we think we are just wonderful people.

So then we move on from Romans 3.21 through 5.21, Paul spells out our justification by faith. and ends with grace is now the reigning principle in a believer's life. So we've established we're sinners. Now he walks into justification by faith. And I think it's, no, go ahead. I just want to make a comment on the first part of what you're talking about. It's only the Holy Spirit that can convince a man that he's in that position. Right.

Because most people think they're great, swell people. Without his work in the world, no one would ever come to Christ, because they think they're OK. And this goes back to maybe what Jim had said, too, that before you're a believer, none of this makes sense.

However, the Holy Spirit is working on everybody. And that's, I think, there's nobody that God isn't working on. And I think the Holy Spirit is trying to convince and bringing his truths before you. You reject it. but he's always working on it. Once you are in Christ, it's like the shutters are off, the blinds are off, and now all these truths become alive. But I think the Holy Spirit is working on everybody, and you reject it. So they may think they're swell and wonderful, but this is true.

And ultimately, each one of us have come to that position of believers, where you realize you're a sinner, and you need a savior. But that's the Holy Spirit really bringing you to that point, because otherwise you think you're a great person. So I think, yeah, it doesn't make sense to people until the Holy Spirit convinces you that you are a sinner and that you need a Savior and that there's no way, and we'll get to that in some of these other questions, that there's no way you can satisfy that. There's no thing you can do, no amount of money, no amount of charity work, no amount of whatever to get you from a sinner to where you are in Christ.

So we lay that out, and then I like at the end of it, justification by faith, but I like at the end of it where we talk about grace, and we've had a whole class on grace, and then 520 and 21 summarize, and I like this where we say about grace as a reigning principle.

520 and 21, the law came in so that transgression would increase. Wow, that's contrary to most people's belief. We think sin is the way we, I mean, the law comes in so we become swell and wonderful and abide. The law came in so that transgression would increase. Hmm. Where sin increased, grace abound all the more. So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So that's the operating system we as believers are in now. Grace is the reigning principle for us. So we've gone from a sinner to justification by faith.

It's nothing that we can do. It's by faith. And then we move into Romans 6. Now this is the mechanics. This is how does this work now? How do we get out of this sinful position, 1 through 321, justification by faith we believe, but what transpires? What now happens in your belief?

And in 6, it really lays out the identification truths. And for those of you who haven't been in the class, the Romans class, really this is Christianity 101. You really need, and Mike and I have talked about this, unless you understand the identification truths, you're gonna be struggling. Mike said it, and we've had arguments in the past about, you know, do you need to have the identification truths to be a believer?

No, I think very simple faith in I'm a sinner, I need a savior, Christ is the savior. And simple trust in that fact. you are into God's family. You don't know all these things that transpired about you. You have no clue, but you're a babe in Christ. Now, the identification truths are the ones that allow you to grow.

Because otherwise, you're always trying to fix up that old man, that you still think you're kind of a swell and wonderful person. And as we've talked about, we've gone in the tree of good and evil. We've gone from that evil side. Now we've magically moved over to the good side where we're going to be good. That is not true. We have been removed and I was talking to Mike about this.

We don't go down the tree and run over here and get up. God places us by faith or saved by grace through faith. He takes us from that tree and puts us in the tree of life. We don't run down the tree and go over here, but we are physically removed from the tree of good and evil to the tree of life.

And the mechanics of that happen in Romans 6. This is basic. And I don't think a lot of people will grow as much until you understand this, because you're always trying to fix up the old man. I'm really good, and now that I have the Holy Spirit, I'm empowered to be a really good person. That's not all that needs to happen.

And we'll see this in Romans 6, a lot of the things about the identification. We see this in Romans 6, 6 and 7. Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is free from sin.

So I remember Mike long, long time ago said to somebody who you were counseling, and he said, just read that. What does it mean? And I look in the mirror and I say, for how many years was I a believer and didn't know this? And I always wonder about these things in Galatians 2.20 and some of these ones. How did I get by that? How did I get by that? Did I just kind of, yeah, kind of like, Co-crucifixion, our old self was crucified? What does that mean? I don't know how I bypassed that.

Or Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified and it's no longer I live. How do you jump past that? I don't know, but I did it for 20 years or 15 years, whatever.

But that's the mechanics. We're now co-crucified. And then in Romans 6, 11, even so, consider yourself to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. So we are to reckon ourselves dead, co-crucified, and now we're alive in God. That old man is positionally, judicially taken care of. God doesn't even see that anymore. He sees us in Christ now.

So I always tell people when they're always worried about their sin and what they're doing and how bad they are or whatever, does God even see that really? The sin that you did? Or is he done with it? He's done with it. Why are you still hanging around worrying about it?

You know, and I think, you know, the confession of 1 John 1, 9 were to confess. It's just saying, I'm not acting who I am in Christ. I'm an idiot. You know, I didn't, I'm not acting how you placed me into Christ and have a life in Christ. Yeah. I think too, that, uh, one of the things that you discover in, uh, Romans 5.12 is that there are the two most important men, Adam and Christ, and you're identified with one or the other, not both.

And the second thing that you discover is that the language changes from sins to sin. And when you see the word sin in the Word of God, what does that mean? talking about the evil acts that I do, it's talking about this principle in me, associated with the first Adam, that is really the source of my behavior. I think Watchman Nee in his book, Normal Christian Life, talked, his metaphor was a of whiskey bottles and that you go around breaking all the whiskey bottles. Did God do anything about the whiskey factory? Yeah, he did. And that's a good point.

I mean, that's why we have this co-cultivation because being a believer just doesn't shine up the old man. It doesn't give you empowerment now through the indwelling Holy Spirit to just be a better Adam. It doesn't do that. We had to go through this co-crucifixion.

Toward the end, but I want to get through this real quick. In Romans 7, we see Paul recognize that sinful flesh still remains. We have two natures in us, unquestionably. We have the sin, the flesh, which is still active, but we also have a new nature in us, a new spirit, and that's Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So we get into seven where Paul tries and says, finally, it's like there's nothing good dwells in my flesh.

How can I get out of this? Christ. He finally comes to that. And in Romans 8, we get to the one verse beginning in verses 1 through 3, therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. and just the wonderful things to transpire after this. So getting back to the questions, how does the author describe lay a book of Romans? That's the way we lay it out.

And if you want to look at it, you can look at pages 35, 30, or whatever. And I'll end here, but you can look at that. And he kind of summarized it in a couple paragraphs. But how we teach Romans is that through those different sections of Romans. So I can maybe touch on that next week. I think we're over on time now. But if you want to look at that and see how he summarized, he summarized it in two little quick paragraphs.

So anyway, any thoughts before? Stopping? More than 10 minutes. Oh, yeah. But it's the most important information the spirit of God can teach a believer because it takes him out of the whole realm of death into the realm of life. And how did that all happen? And we'll get into it as we get in. Rest.

You don't have to worry about all this junk on this side of the equation. Now if we believe there is the fruit of the spirit, joy, peace, all those things now are ours. And I don't think you understand that as well. You don't have the ability to grow until you really understand that concept of identification. Identification allows the growth because I'm not shining up the old man. He's dead, passed judicially, taken care of at the cross. and we don't have to worry about that anymore.

So, all right, let's close and we'll hit question two starting next week. There's some fun stuff as we get into this. We really want to get into question three too. There are a lot of... want to get your thoughts on that about that. And it kind of touched on a few things we did today about how man can refresh or wash himself. So I want to get some thoughts on that one. So let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time where we can open up your word and just fellowship around your word. We we do thank you again, just for as our class is focused on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and what that means. And again, not only the indwelling of the spirit, but as we've looked at the your word And just to spend time in your word, to just have that intimate fellowship with your son through the word. And again, we just realized the two points that I really just think of so many times, your sovereignty.

In this world, there are trials, there are different things, but all the things that happen to a believer are allowed by you. And it's not out of malice, because we've seen the Romans 8 passage at the end where We can't be separated from your love. So you're a sovereign God, you're in control of this, and you love us. All of those truths give us the rest and peace that we know are in Christ. So we thank you again for just opening up your word now, and we pray in the next meeting that, again, just prepare our hearts to receive it and to have the fellowship of your words. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.